


Where you are is where I've always wanted to be

by jade_lil



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Arashi - Freeform, Fanfiction, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 13:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1943679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jade_lil/pseuds/jade_lil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nino and Ohno gets into an accident at 2 o’clock in the morning. They have no business being out together without either Jun or Aiba knowing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where you are is where I've always wanted to be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sweetspicyhot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetspicyhot/gifts), [renchan27](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=renchan27).
  * Inspired by [Simple Things](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1834291) by [jade_lil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jade_lil/pseuds/jade_lil). 



> filling prompts over at rainbowfilling
> 
> for the prompt : On the way home

He doesn’t dare question Nino when Nino decided it is better if he stays with his mother or when Nino declined his manager’s [OFFER](http://jade-lil.livejournal.com/266154.html#) to take him home, ‘ _because Aiba-chan will’_  even though he hasn’t asked.   
  
He doesn’t want to think much of it because wondering will only take his thoughts further into what he deems is ‘forbidden territory’, and well, he worries enough as it is so thinking will only make matters worse.   
  
Neither of them is talking and the silence is making Aiba fidgety, knows that he keeps throwing glances to his left to where Nino is buckled safely and is trying vainly to play his DS one-handedly. It would have been funny if the situation happened to be different from this but right now, all Aiba feels is the unsettling knot tightening in his stomach and the awkward air hanging between them.  
  
“You want to talk about it, just ask,” Nino mutters without looking up, slouching further into his seat and wincing; Aiba sees this and immediately feels the awkward air dissipates, his worries taking over as quickly as his next heartbeat.   
  
“God, I’m  _fine_ , Aiba-chan,” Nino muses, and is quickly tossing his DS into Aiba’s dashboard and reaching over to grab Aiba’s elbow using his good hand. Aiba notices that Nino’s hand is cold, his face paler than usual and Aiba realizes he’s pulling over before Nino’s able to stop him.  
  
He’s out of his [CAR](http://jade-lil.livejournal.com/266154.html#) and rounding the way to the back to retrieve the bag where he thinks Nino’s medicines are in a heartbeat, sweat breaking across his temple as he grabs the said bag and starts rummaging through the contents of the small duffel bag while cursing under his breath.   
  
His thoughts had been occupied with no-nonsense things that he didn’t notice the fact that Nino’s in pain, and knowing Nino, he’d just bear it alone in silence for as long as he can.   
  
 _Stupid. What a stupid, stupid_  –  
  
“Masaki, what the hell are you doing?” Nino’s voice cut through his mental conflict, realizing belatedly that his hands are shaking and the contents of the small duffel bag are making their way out of his car’s compartment. None of them, however, are the medicines he’s looking for. He looks up in time to see Nino limping his way out from the passenger’s seat, and Aiba is just marginally thankful that the way to Nino’s mother’s family home is almost deserted save from a few cars passing by, including them.  
  
“Nino-chan, just stay there!” he whines, quickly rounding the way to where Nino is and promptly putting his arm around Nino’s slender waist, guiding him back to the car. Nino huffs and puffs, obviously annoyed, but otherwise lets himself be steered back to his seat. “I’m trying to find your meds – you know the ones for the pain but I forgot where I stashed –“  
  
Nino cuts him off with a curt slap across the head before he’s using the same hand he had just slapped him with by tugging his face down for a quick, chaste kiss.   
  
“You are going to hyperventilate yourself to death and  _god_ , in other times it would be very funny to [WATCH](http://jade-lil.livejournal.com/266154.html#) but not today, Aiba-chan, okay?” Nino tells him in all seriousness and Aiba knows that Nino  _knows_. He forgot Nino’s ability to read almost everyone around him just by looking at them and well, he’s never an exception to that, is he? “I’m alright – my hand’s a little sore but the pain’s bearable, so you don’t have to worry so much. I think I should worry about  _you_ , though. You look like you’re torn between crashing the [CAR](http://jade-lil.livejournal.com/266154.html#) and strangling me to death,” Nino adds, and Aiba knows he wants to make it sound like he’s joking but the tremble on Nino’s voice told him otherwise.  
  
“Nino-chan –“  
  
Nino’s other hand creep its way to the back of his head before Nino is leaning [UP TO](http://jade-lil.livejournal.com/266154.html#) nuzzle his cheek, and it’s warm where their skins are touching. He leans further into Nino and Nino presses a kiss against the side of his face, to the line of his jaw.   
  
“It’s okay to be mad, Masaki,” Nino whispers and his tone is filled with so much emotion that the sound of it alone is enough to make Aiba’s heart hurt. “I deserve it, hell, I and Oh-chan deserve to be chastised, but none of you seems to want to do it.” Nino pauses and heaves a sigh, fingers tightening around the back of his head.  
  
“I know it’s confusing and there’s this hanging question in everyone’s head but – but I don’t have all the answers. Just the ones I’m allowed to give which might probably confuse people even more if I say them. It’s just that, Oh-chan needed help and he thought I was the one who could help him, but then he got frustrated and we got into a little argument and, well, I’ve lost control of the car and that’s that. That’s basically what happened..” Nino pauses here and looks up to meet his gaze.   
  
Aiba nods because he doesn’t know what else he should do. That’s practically the same thing Ohno told him, and really, he doesn’t know what else is there that Nino and Ohno hasn’t said.  
  
“Everyone can say whatever the hell they want to say, they can think whatever the fuck they want to think, I don’t care. I won’t give a damn about everyone’s opinion, never… except -- except  _yours_ , Aiba-chan; I – I need to know that you believe me in this because god, really there’s nothing going on between me and Oh-chan and you of all people should know that,” and there’s that, the words Aiba himself couldn’t stomach to say. Nino’s voice trembles at the last syllable and Aiba shakes his head and turns to press his mouth against the side of Nino’s temple.  
  
He lets his breath whoosh out of him in a rush as his knees slowly give out, finds himself wrapped around Nino and breathing Nino in.   
  
He doesn’t know – doesn’t realize how much he wanted to do this, to just hold Nino so tight and allow himself to believe that yes, Nino is here and he is alive. All those other trivial things he could ignore; if Nino tells him there’s nothing he should be worried about, then that’s exactly what he’s going to do.  
  
But for now, he’ll take his chance and hold Nino until Nino tells him to let go.  
  
++  
  
“I do believe you,” he says, like an afterthought, when he’s back behind the wheel and he’s got Nino’s good hand tangled with his. He doesn’t take his eyes off the road because he knows Nino is listening anyway, feels Nino squeezing their fingers together in response. “For whatever its worth, I think you should know that I’ll always believe you,” he says, and god, it feels too good to be able to finally say that.  
  
Nino doesn’t answer right away but when he finally does, it’s the sort of answer that makes Aiba’s heart happy.  
  
“Well, aside from being a certified idiot,” Nino says, and Aiba feels this urge to tug Nino closer so he could kiss him, but stops himself short of doing it because he doesn’t want to be preached about safe driving, so he just lifts their joined hands and drops a soft kiss against Nino’s knuckles. “I’m sure it’s because you love me too much,” Nino says this last bit a little too smugly, but he is blushing so hard that the urge to kiss him returns full force Aiba has to bite his [LIPS](http://jade-lil.livejournal.com/266154.html#) to stop himself.  
  
“That maybe so,” he agrees but he’s smiling, too. “I guess that’s not a secret anymore, huh?”   
  
“It’s okay to be angry, Aiba-chan,” Nino says then, turning serious again and Aiba grasps Nino’s hand tightly. “That’s just a normal reaction considering the circumstances. Well, aside from the fact that what I and Oh-chan did was stupid, I guess getting into that accident topped it all up – the stupidity, I mean,”  
  
“You’re not stupid,” he tells Nino, “and neither is Leader; I’m sure you both have a very valid reason why you two had to go out in the middle of the night to drive around and talk, and I’m not going to question that. And I already said I believed you, so, let’s just drop it, okay?”  
  
“You were worried, I know you were, and it wasn’t just because you thought either I or Oh-chan was going to turn up dead,”  
  
“Nino-chan,”   
  
Nino huffs but continues. “No, we have to talk about this, Aiba-chan,” he says and he’s squeezing their hands together, tighter now. “I know you believe me but I’m also sure that somewhere in that pretty stupid brain of yours, you have doubts,”  
  
Aiba sighs. “Nino, it’s not like that, okay?”  
  
“Then what was it like?” Nino insists and Aiba lifts their joined hands again, presses his mouth to the back of Nino’s palm. “Please tell me because I want to know,”  
  
He thinks about it hard because he doesn’t really want to entertain the idea before, even though he’s sure that it’s there; it’s difficult to stay focused on just the feeling of wanting to make sure Nino and Ohno are going to be fine instead of the hovering questions at the back of his head asking him,  _what the fuck just happened_?  
  
“Fine, okay, so I was worried,”  
  
“Right, go on,” Nino tells him; he does his best to scowl but Nino huffs impatiently and he’s driving so his attention is split into doing two different things at the same time. “You’re worried about --?”  
  
He heaves a sigh again. “I was w-worried that you –“ he swallows the lump that suddenly blocks his throat and give Nino a sideway glance. “ – that you were having second thoughts about  _this_ – about  _us_ ,”  
  
Nino’s eyes widen and his mouth open and closes but no words came out. So he continues.  
  
“It’s hard, really, thinking that I wasn’t enough – that even after all these years and even after so long, you still feel the same way about Leader,” he starts, his chest expanding with the urge to breath the words out in quick succession. But he can’t, and even if he could, he probably wouldn’t be able to; it’s too hard to talk when he’s feeling like this, when the urge to cry is too strong and he doesn’t want Nino to see him like this again.  
  
“ _But_  – But I saw Leader looking at Jun, and you don’t look at someone like that only to cheat on him – and.. and there’s this nagging part of me that keeps on asking me whether you were looking at me the same way too and, well –“  
  
“You truly are stupid,” Nino mutters and Aiba has to agree, for once; doubting is one thing, but doubting what Nino feels for him is another. “I already told you, it’s not like that between me and Leader anymore. Before, yes, but that was ages ago. We were young and stupid and didn’t know what we really wanted,”  
  
“Well, you can’t exactly blame me,” he counters, feels the rueful twist gracing the edge of his mouth. “Leader was _your_ first love and well, we’ve all seen you guys together before. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were happier with him than you are with  _m_  –“  
  
“ _My first love_?” Nino cuts in, and there’s an edge to his tone that Aiba knows wasn’t there before. “Are you for real? Well fuck, I’m not sure where you got that idea but Oh-chan  _wasn’t_  my first love,” Nino continues, shaking his head and biting his lips as if he’s trying his best not to laugh, or god forbid, cry.   
  
“ _You_  are,” Nino adds and Aiba is sure his heart just swoops right then and there.  
  
“Excuse me?”   
  
Nino is seriously smiling like he couldn’t believe it either, and he’s completely pink in the face that Aiba feels this sudden urge to run his fingers across Nino’s cheek just to check it for himself.   
  
“Oh-chan knows  _you_  were  _my_  first love, Aiba-chan, and that’s that,” Nino tells him, “What we were before, well, I wouldn’t say it was something I didn’t want because then I’d be lying. I loved Oh-chan then, love him still maybe, but now it’s completely different, and well, we both agreed that it was good then while it lasts. But you and me, it’s different, okay? I just – I know I’m not that good in expressing myself but I’m pretty sure I’m so much better at showing it so, yeah. But. I love  _you._  You, Aiba Masaki, and don’t you dare forget that,”  
  
“Wow,” is all he’s able to come up with because his heart feels too close to bursting and that if he ever tries to speak, he’ll cry. So he just takes Nino’s hand in his again and takes it closer to his chest, where they could both feel the way his heart is behaving underneath their palms.  
  
“I take it that you love me so much, too, huh?” he says after a while, just to get back at Nino. Nino makes a sound that is completely adorable, matches it with a pout that makes reaching over to give Nino a smacking kiss on the [LIPS](http://jade-lil.livejournal.com/266154.html#) completely justifiable.  
  
They’re fine, like this; and Aiba wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [I'll have you know, you are my life and my future](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1943700) by [jade_lil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jade_lil/pseuds/jade_lil)




End file.
